DOL Issues New FMLA Forms

Time to head to the paper shredder. Susan Schoenfeld, JD, Senior Legal Editor at HR.BLR.com recently wrote that the expired FMLA forms the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) told you to keep using have been replaced. DOL recently issued new FMLA forms which do not expire until May 31, 2018. Other than the new expiration date, it appears that the only substantive change to the forms is a brief reference to the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) in the new WH-380E, 380F, 385 and 385V medical certification forms.

According to the GINA regulations, if an employer provides a safe harbor notice with the request for medical certification, any receipt of genetic information in response to the request will be considered inadvertent and will not violate GINA.

In the new FMLA forms, the instructions to healthcare providers (section II) now state:
“Do not provide information about genetic tests, as defined in 29 C.F.R. § 1635.3(f), genetic services, as defined in 29 C.F.R. § 1635.3(e), or the manifestation of disease or disorder in the employee’s family members, 29 C.F.R. § 1635.3(b).”

We will report further on the new forms as more information becomes available. But for now, shred those old, outdated FMLA forms and start using the new forms: